Here’s an interesting tidbit:
Recently Saugata noted that the name “Pakistan” is in fact an acronym:
In a 1933 pamphlet Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Cambridge student, coined the name Pakstan (later Pakistan), on behalf of those Muslims living in Punjab, Afghan (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sind, and Balochistan. Alternatively the name was said to mean “Land of the Pure.”
American puppeteer Jim Henson, born this day in 1936, was the creator of the Muppets (a meld of “marionettes” and “puppets”), whose characters included Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, and the Cookie Monster.
[via This Day in History - 24 September
Also see EB’s index entries for Sesame Street, marionette, or string puppet, puppetry, and various entries on muppet.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, the French city of Nantes hosted a stunning parade. Impressive photos and video are available on the city’s website. (More EB coverage of Verne in the science fiction article and elsewhere)
[Via screenhead]
September 22 is World Car Free Day, an annual event seeking to celebrate and encourage alternatives to automobile transportation, such as mass transit or bicycles. Britannica has a number of related resources including in-depth articles on the history of transporation and transportation economics.
On Monday (September 21st) Britannica moved into a new home office at 331 North LaSalle in Chicago, IL. Things have been hectic around here as we settle in, so posting will be a light this week.
I’m trying to get together some pictures of the new space.
Institutional customers should check out the new Encyclopedia Britannica Online site, released this morning. The new site features a clean design, new content, and new features. Existing customers can just visit new.search.eb.com (or follow the “preview” link in the header of search.eb.com). For everyone else, I’ve got screen shots:
Yo hablo muy poco español, but it seems that BibDigBlog offers a Firefox plug-in for searching multiple databases available to members of the institution, including ProQuest, Britannica, the Oxford dictionary and more. That’s a great idea. Do other universities do the same?
About a month ago, I noted the official release of Britannica’s Ultimate Reference Suite 2006. In the first published review of the 2006 URS that I’ve seen, Sam Vaknin cites the “dozens of user-friendly alterations and enhancements” when he writes:
“The 2006 edition is a breakthrough. The Britannica seemed to have finally got it entirely right.”
The new interface seems to be well received, by beta testers, and so far, by reviewers as well.
The Britannica Store is offering a replica of the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica for $145 (down from $195).
Among the amusing things about the first edition is that it was published in three volumes: A-B, C-L and M-Z. There’s a lesson in that, somewhere.
As an update to yesterday’s post, an astute reader pointed out that Britannica has a Chinese language product online as well, at wordpedia.eb.com (only available to institutional customers, however).
Also, interestingly, as Mathias points out, EB’s head editorial honcho Dale Hoiberg is a sinologist.
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